


Broken Table

by Some_Dwarven_Writer



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/F, F/M, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-12
Updated: 2018-08-12
Packaged: 2019-06-26 05:20:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15656592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Some_Dwarven_Writer/pseuds/Some_Dwarven_Writer
Summary: Over a simple dinner, the Inquisitor sits in audience to the storm that is the Champion of Kirkwall and the Hero of Ferelden's clashing personalities.





	Broken Table

Red drapery ornamented windows framed in dark wood. The glass that usually gave way for a brilliant portrait of Val Royeaux allowed not but the soggy and distorted imagery of a large city dampened by a downpour. Lightning cracked the dark clouds, burning an image of light onto Mariva’s pupils. The dwarven woman took a moment to watch the storm rage on outside. She needed a moment of peace before returning to the subject at hand. Before her sat a long table, large not only because it was made for humans but also because it was made for nobility. Placed dedicated on the rich wood sat a vast number of half eaten dishes scattered among many full courses. Mariva decided she would need to ask the serving staff to give the leftovers to the impoverished and hungry citizens of Val Royeaux. Everything in the room around her was lit in dancing candle light. Gorgeous candelabras sat in a line down the middle of the table, looking more expensive than her lover could have afforded in a lifetime of hard work. Mariva, on the other hand, had grown up as a Cadash. Her family had a vast amount of power in the Carta and so she had always been able to live like a noble. The room itself was just as ornate as the lighting. Fine dark wood chairs leafed in gold, beautifully cut stone walls, sliver torch holders and pressed drapery. Mariva felt like she was at home. That wasn’t reassuring. Despite her discomfort she conceded that the room was a pretty one. Leliana always had a way with knowing the right setting for a confrontation. Although, Mariva doubted even Leliana had expected the meal to go as horrible wrong as it had thus far.    
   
Mariva allowed her eyes to easily fall back to the bickering that had quickly escalated to shouting. Two women were in the grips of a current vocal battle. Red faced and spluttering, Ashton Hawke’s blond hair fell over her eyes as she opened her mouth to counter her opponent. Cutting over her words easily, Killi Tabris barely looked winded by the conversations, although her eyes held a dangerous venom.    
   
"Now, now, Hawke, I’m sure the mages in Kirkwall were terrible but your Knight Captain was brutal! Didn’t she go mad for power and turn into lyrium?” Tabris said, her shoulders shrugged nonchalantly. Beside her, Leliana wore more casual robes than the Divine usually was allowed to. As Divine she had broken a lot of rules or perhaps, she had simply made new rules. Beside Leliana a young red-haired boy sat with moon like eyes. In awe the boy watched the casual dictations of his elven mother. The boy was the Divine’s first bastard. She had two now, a girl, far too young to be involved in important political meetings and a boy who was also too young to be where he was currently sitting absorbing one of his mother’s every word. Mariva wondered if Leliana would marry Killian Tabris before they accidentally had another child. Although, Mariva doubted the boy was actually an accident as the Divine had publicly stated.   
   
"You are too full of yourself to understand anything, Tabris! Mages destroyed Kirkwall and mages tore down the Warden’s in Orlais! Now an ancient elven mage is threatening all of Thedas and you think it is a coincidence!” Hawke yelled electricity crackling at her fists. Beside her, Hawke’s silent elven lover stood vigil occasionally nodding in agreement to whatever she said. If Mariva remembered what Varric had told her, the elf had been a Tevinter slave, branded with those lyrium tattoos. They gave him unusual powers. Fenris was his name, wasn’t it? Yes, Mariva frowned surveying the elf, she was fairly certain that was right.    
   
Tabris laughed but from her raised voice it was obvious she was losing her ability to stay so casually calm, “Says the woman who made one of the kindness healers I know into a martyr!”    
   
"Yes! The woman that killed an abomination because he destroyed innocent lives and started a war!” Hawke shot back, Mariva noticed that her elven lover nodded more vigorously at that comment. With a sigh the dwarven woman mused at how lucky her lover had been in avoiding this dinner. He was currently working with some of the remaining Wardens, trying to find out why they had all suddenly vanished. Assuming the dinner didn’t dissolve into chaos, she had been expecting to ask Tabris exactly what she knew of the Warden’s odd behaviour. That seemed less and less likely to happen now.    
   
"A war that was solved easily by giving the mages their freedom!” Tabris shot back. Mariva should interrupt but she knew trying to find her voice in the middle of an argument like this was going to be almost impossible. Besides, they’d probably make her choose a side and that was the complete opposite of what Mariva had planned for the night. She had asked Tabris and Hawke to join her for a dinner because they needed to discuss what they could do about Solas and his threats to the world. She needed a backup plan. If Mariva and her band of compatriots failed, she would need someone else to take on the torch. She had hoped both Tabris and Hawke would agree to help. Sadily, the meal had dissolved into the Hero and the Champion’s huge personalities clashing over the roast chicken. It would have been amusing to Mariva if it wasn’t all so tedious.    
   
"The war was ended by the Inquisitor and the Divine, not the mages!” Hawke growled, her brow shining with fury, “Real woman that have shaped Thedas!”   
   
Tabris jumped to her feet, her chair scraping the floor with the motion, “Are you insinuating that I am not a real woman?” Beside her, the young boy mirrored his mother’s action but instead of clenched fists one hand wielded a cheese knife. With the both of them standing up, Mariva noticed the similarities between mother and son. The same large green eyes, the similarly elongated nose and there were other features that with a few years of molding would become more similar. Tabris’ hard masculine jawline, unable to be altered in shaving the way her facial hair could be and her wider shoulders on her slender elven form. Although, the boy didn’t have his mother’s ears or exact figure, there were similarities. He shared many more similarities with Leliana. They always had been more obvious because elf blooded children look human, almost exclusively human. As Mariva noticed the similar characteristics in mother and son, Tabris turned her anger on the boy, “Percy! Sit down! We do not draw knives on our guest, even when they are offensive and wrong!” The little boy looked affronted but did as he was told, dropping the knife and sitting back down.    
 

Hawke scoffed, pulling herself to her feet, “It’s not offensive if it’s true!” Fenris followed her action, as Percy had mirrored his mother.    
   
"Then why don’t you call me knife ear and see how your lover likes it!” Tabris turned to spit back at the insult, “You know, I used to dream about killing humans like you when I lived in Denerim. Every night I’d go to sleep wishing I could slit some nobles expensive throat. That is, until the day I actually did it. You should have seen all the blood on my wedding dress. Couldn’t ever really wash it out.”    
   
“That’s a threat!” Hawke screamed raising a hand, fire forming in her fist. Fenris followed the motions of his lover, drawing a long sword, glowing in its own magical light. Mariva wished she could have laughed over the irony of the mage haters both using magic when they fought. She pulled her sword from her scabbard in a fluid motion. The metal sang its sweet deadly song.   
   
Tabris laughed, grabbing the sword strapped to the back of her waist with one hand and the knife with the opposite, “Awe, the poor daft noble human knows what a threat is. Good for her!” The thick sarcasm evaporated leaving a stark sensarity to her words when she spoke again, “Sometimes I wonder if the Dread Wolf might have a point.” Mariva paused in her action, freezing and watching Tabris with an uncertain distrust. Leliana mirrored the emotion, placing a hand on her lovers' arm but not moving to stand. Mariva eyes lingered on the two as she watched them make quick eye contact. Tabris’ shoulders fell.     
   
Hawke went on not noticing the gravity of what Tabris had spouted in anger, “I bet you were never punished for your crimes! That’s how the Wardens are, aren’t they? They’re just a group of criminals given leave to do whatever they want!”    
   
The breath hissed out of Mariva’s lungs. She spoke with a deadly quiet that cut through the room sharper than Tabris’ dagger could have, “I do hope you aren’t trying to make a room full of enemies, Hawke. If that’s what you want, please do continue to talk about the Grey Wardens.”    
   
Flippantly Hawke waved away Mariva’s comment, “I don’t mean your surly lover, Cadash. Didn’t it turn out he wasn’t even a Warden? His criminal status can’t affect them, in that case.” Mariva took the barb, allowing it to knock her off balance but not allowing it to drive her to the anger Hawke wished for. She could piss of Tabris all she wanted, Mariva saw the truth. Hawke was scared. A scared young woman uncertain of what to do next. She was jealous of Mariva, Tabris and Leliana’s power. Hawke wanted to be the center of attention, but she had lost that place as soon as the world realize it didn’t revolve around the Champion of Kirkwall. She was like a child trapped in a crevasse, desperately trying to climb out and get nothing more than broken finger nails.    
   
“Offending the Inquisitor too? Guess I shouldn’t be that surprised. Blood mage’s have no taste,” Tabris’ words were the final seal. The conflict was going to be physical. Hawke growled like a caged animal, throwing a ball of fire at Tabris. The elf jumped and easily crested the edge of the fire before throwing her weight into a thrust with her sword. Fenris’ great sword met Tabris’ neck as her sword pierced Hawke’s side. Leliana had jumped away from the fireball, taking little Percy with her. The boy sat still quivering by the time his mother had a dagger to Fenris’ throat.    
   
“Guards!” Mariva yelled, unsure of who to point her blade at. Luckily, her friends could do the hard work for her. The large ornate wooden door burst open as Hawke shot a spell at Percy. A bolt of ice flew through the air towards the boy, Tabris screamed but she couldn’t move with Fenris so close. Leliana made for the boy but she was to far away. Mariva moved on gut instinct, she ran for the boy, barely covering his body with her own. Gritting her teeth, she braced for an impact, but it never came. Her arms slowly released the Percy, although he had wrapped his own arms tightly around her waist and sobbing into the leathers there.    
   
“Alright, Quizzie? Good thing we were here, yeah?” The voice of a familiar young woman eased Mariva’s heavy shoulders allowing her to turn and assess the room. Sera stood at the door, her bow twitching ever so slightly between Tabris and Fenris.    
   
With her sword angled down but obviously still ready to strike, Seeker Cassandra Pentaghast’s hand fell to her side. It was the one she had used to save Mariva and Percy from an icy nap, “Leliana please, drop your weapon. All of you, drop your weapons. We don’t want this to get messy. We have an enemy that is a far greater threat than any of us could pose to each other.” She shot Mariva a look that said very plainly, how did you let this happen. Mariva was only able to form a shrug in response, as she got to her feet sheathing her sword and surveying the devastation. Where the fire ball had been was now a pile of charred wood and food, the table bowing in two to the floor beside it. Mariva’s mind swam with the cost of such destruction.    
   
“Alright,” Mariva said her eyes darting from the gathered group of posed people to the charred remains of their dinner, “This dinner is adjourned. You’re free to go, I guess. Let's all hope I can stop Solas cause I’m sure as hell not going to try and work with you lot again!” Her temper was cooler than the other two women’s. It was an icy heat, the sort that lulls you into a sense of security before killing you. Everyone else's anger began to flow away with the new tides. Weapons were lowered and sheathed, magical fires were put out and the most powerful women in southern Thedas had the decency to look guilty.    
 

“I’ll pay for the table, Cadash,” Hawke said softly lowering her head, “And Tabris I suppose I said some undo things. I apologize. I was just angry.”    
   
“Yeah,” Tabris patted little Percy’s head. The boy had ran over to his mother’s side as soon as the madness had subsided, “I’m also sorry. I said some rude and untrue things.”    
   
“You did have some good points,” Hawke chuckled, “I am a blood mage.” Tabris joined her in the laugh. Mariva smiled despite the biting fury still raging on in her gut. As the storm rocked the room with thunder and doused the windows in a layer of water, Mariva watched the two women bond. Perpash the table was the only thing that had been broken during their disastrous dinner. Mariva supposed it was a small price to pay. 


End file.
